http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
NOTHING IS MORE HYPOCRITICAL than Senator John McCain's constant whining
about "negative ads" by Governor George W. Bush, when McCain himself led the
way with ads comparing Bush to Clinton. South Carolina voters were not
fooled. Polls show that more of them blamed McCain for negative ads than
blamed Bush.

McCain's concession speech was one of the ugliest given by any defeated
candidate. It was full of accusations -- some of them personal -- so that we
are perhaps now getting a look at the real man under the pious image. That
reality may help explain why so many people who have actually dealt with
McCain in person during his 17 years in Washington are backing George W.
Bush. These include most of his fellow senators and the Republican governor
of his home state of Arizona.

The truth has a way of coming out, in spite of the media or the spin. The
first big truth is that Senator John McCain has not won a majority vote in
any Republican primary, not even in New Hampshire, where his victory had the
media in ecstasy. Bush has now won all but one of the primaries and has
several times as many delegates as McCain. Nothing the media says can change
that.

What success McCain has achieved has depended heavily on Democrats and
independents. Some Democrats and labor union bosses, have urged their
followers to go into the Republican primaries and vote for McCain. Is this
how the Republican nominee should be chosen? And who will those Democrats
and union members vote for in November?

Senator McCain is trying to wrap himself in the mantle of a "reformer."
During the 17 years that he has been in Washington, just what has he
reformed? Name one thing.

The liberal New Republic magazine hit the nail on the head when it featured
John McCain on a recent cover and said, "This man is not a Republican." They
of course were happy about that and even seemed to hold out hope that, as
president, McCain could "reform" the Republican Party. That's the kind of
reform the liberal media would like -- making Republican mean Democrat Lite.
What are the substantive issues dividing Bush and McCain?

The clearest difference between them is on taxes. Governor Bush wants to
cut everybody's taxes across the board and by a larger amount than Senator
McCain wants. McCain plays the Democrats' game of denying "tax cuts for the
wealthy" and talking about keeping part of the surplus to pay down the
national debt.

Talk about "the rich" is sheer demagoguery. Despite the class-envy
rhetoric, we are not talking about classes. We are talking about people
moving up as they get older and acquire the skills and experience to earn
higher incomes. Most of the people who start out in the bottom 20 percent
also reach the top 20 percent at some point or other. Leave the Robin Hood
stuff to the Democrats.

As for letting money accumulate in Washington to pay off the national debt,
you simply cannot be serious if you think that is going to happen. If the
money is in Washington, the politicians are going to spend it. Senator
McCain has to know that, so who is he kidding?

"I'm no hypocrite, darnit!"

What about Governor Bush? He says he is a "reformer with results." His most
important reform efforts have been with the Texas public schools. The first
thing that caught my eye was that black students in Texas have the highest
test scores of black students in any state in the nation. Governor Bush has
said repeatedly that he is against "the soft bigotry" of lower expectations
for some students because of their backgrounds.

The demographics are going to be against the Republicans in the 21st
century, unless they can start making inroads into the Democrats' hammer
lock on minority votes. Bush has already gotten a substantial part of the
Hispanic vote in Texas and he may be able to make inroads into the
Democrats' monopoly of the black vote.

If the Republicans blow this opportunity, who knows when the next one will
come along? Neither articulation nor appeal to minority voters has been a
strong suit for most Republican candidates.

Despite the high stakes, a small army of spoilers in the primaries have
accomplished nothing but drain Bush's money and increase the chance of
victory for the
Democrats.